mon' (mun) short for "money"
How did Starfleet personnel pay for anything at Quark's ??
How did Starfleet personnel pay for anything at Quark's ??
No mon' = no fun ??
- Thread starter c0rnedfr0g
- Start date
I don't remember it ever being addressed on-screen but I always got the impression that starfleet officers in these sorts of situations were given credits or some sort of local currency in order to facilitate local transactions like that.
We know that Quark didn't pay rent or for power usage, etc from his dialog with Sisko in an episode, perhaps it's simply part of that arrangement that starfleet personnel eat/drink, etc for free? If that arrangement changed sisko could have potentially used money collected from rent, etc and given it to starfleet personnnel to buy stuff, making a private little economy.
It seems to me that a large part of what quark serves is just replicated anyway, probably using replicators and energy owned by the station. It might be that he gives them a pass on that stuff but only charges them for stuff he keeps in his personal stock.
It's worth noting that it was technically a Bajoran station and only run by starfleet. Do we have any evidence to suggest if Bajorans did or didn't use currency? If they did, i'd assume starfleet personal were paid the same as their fellow bajoran co-workers.
We never saw any Starfleet personnel hand over what we could identify as money for a drink or a meal but we did hear a number of references to Starfleet officers having tabs at Quarks. So Starfleet officers were still paying for Quark's goods and services in some fashion.
They either put it on tab or used gold-pressed latinum.
That's pretty much how it has been handled in the "closed economies" of the real world. The average Homo sovieticus wouldn't in theory have had access to currency, but a diplomat abroad would have been provided with ample funds to allow him or her to best represent his country.
However, Sisko basically owns Quark's lobes. The very fact that Quark remains aboard at all is due to shameless Starfleet blackmail, and on a couple of occasions Sisko reminds Quark of continuing "special arrangements" regarding his bar. It might well be that Sisko, while upholding proud Federation traditions of altruism, also has chosen to respect time-honored Ferengi customs and insisted on a steady stream of bribes from Quark - in this case, free drinks and food for Starfleet and Bajoran government people, something that the random customer won't get.
Timo Saloniemi
Possibly. We do see Jake using the holosuites in the first season and there's no way he was paying there. However in "You Are Cordially Invited", Quark shows an obvious glee in telling Bashir and O'Brien that there's no refunds after they've ordered food and the wedding is back on.
I think it's more plausible that the replomat(?) is free and something provided to everyone on the station whereas Quark sees some money. Maybe a discount for Federation/Bajoran's though.
Still there are more shops on the station that aren't under Sisko's thumb that the Federation use so they have access to some credit/barter/money.
So their tabs/credits or whatever consist of what, replicator rations? How else would Starfleet personnel accumulate valuables or credits on their own?
Obvious answer is that they are paid somehow. It's possible the Federation picks up the tab for it's officers on non-Federation facilities. The local merchant simply presents their debt list to the Federation and gets paid in whatever form they want. So Quark would get latinum, the Klingon chef gets whatever.
I mean we saw Crusher in Encounter at Farpoint buy something and telling the merchant to charge it to Dr Crusher, Enterprise.
Or they all rely on Dax winning money playing Tongo.
If I was in Starfleet, I'd go on a huge spending/gambling spree... "just charge it to the Federation"
If they have some limit (annual?) on their "credits," then what is the difference between that and actual money? I think it would make more sense if the UFP had some sort of universal monetary system so that non-UFP merchants could provide goods/services within the UFP.
I've been of the opinion that while the Federation itself has no need for money (given that they can replicate just about anything and from what I recall, it's not too uncommon for homes to have holo-systems installed), it also recognizes that its citizens will interact and do business with other races/organizations that still rely on monetary gain, so people are paid like they are in our economy but while they're in the Federation, they have no need to spend any of that money.
Visit Quark's, though, and you can gamble it all away.
Whatever Jadzia won playing Tongo with the other Ferengi she gave to the other starfleet officers, and thats how they paid for there drinks.
